


Risk Assessment

by storiesfortravellers



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Emotional Intimacy, Love, M/M, Risk Assessment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-14
Updated: 2013-06-14
Packaged: 2017-12-14 23:14:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/842510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/storiesfortravellers/pseuds/storiesfortravellers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five Reasons Diggle could be a threat to Oliver.  (But Oliver loves him anyway).</p><p>For this prompt at comment-fic on lj: "Arrow, Oliver Queen/John Diggle, Love is giving someone the power to destroy you, but trusting them not to do so."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Risk Assessment

You always have to assess a possible threat. Even if that threat is an ally.

Especially if he’s an ally.

Threat #1: Diggle might go to the police and reveal your identity.

Likelihood: He won’t do this. Even if you had a falling out, Diggle would never endanger your whole family like that. 

\--  
Threat #2: Diggle could be captured by some criminal who forces him to reveal your secrets.

Likelihood: Won’t happen. You wonder sometimes if Diggle will really stick with you, but you never wonder about his loyalty, his training, his willingness to sacrifice, and particularly his stubbornness. You know him too well for this to be a threat.

\--  
Threat #3: Diggle will decide that you’ve become just as bad as the criminals you hunt and will try to kill you himself.

Likelihood: Very low. It’s possible that you might be a monster someday; you’ve thought about that contingency. But Digg would try talking first, and then he would quit. True, if he really decided it would be better to kill you, he’s the only person with his skills whom you trust. He’s probably the only person who could manage to kill you in your sleep. But in the very unlikely event that he felt he needed to kill you, he would do it honorably, face to face, with fair warning. And he would go for the hurt not the kill, if he could even do that.

And besides, you would have to really, really deserve it for this to ever happen.

\--  
Threat #4: There’s always a way to destroy a person without doing physical harm. Digg probably knows yours.

Likelihood: Moderate. If things got ugly between you two – and they probably would – he might say all the things that you fear (that you know) are true about yourself. He might tell you that what got broken on that island isn’t ever going to be fixed. He might say that the only reason you are strong is because you are empty. He might say that loving you, sharing a bed and mission and a life with you, is a curse. But you have faced worse things than the truth. You will probably survive.

\--  
Threat #5: Diggle will make you weak. He will soften you until you are useless to the mission, and once the mission is gone you will be nothing.

Likelihood: Moderately high. Diggle reminds you to spend time with your sister, reminds you that collateral damage is never to be overlooked, reminds you that it’s okay to take a moment to acknowledge your own pain and loss and suffering. And despite his constant correction, he somehow makes you believe that you can tell him anything, that there is nothing wrong with what you are. 

He tries to get you to think about what you want someday. Where you want to live, what you want to see someday, what you will do when the mission is done. You see this for the manipulation that it is; Digg won’t accept that you’ll almost certainly be killed at some point or another, and he refuses to let you accept it either. 

Diggle believes in the mission. But he believes in you – the two of you – in ways that go far beyond the job. 

There is a real danger in this. A danger that could someday take you apart.

But you have learned the uselessness of fear. And the strength of an embrace, of warm beds and whispered affection and knowing that someone will be there when you are desperate and broken. You have seen both the benefits and the risks.

There is no question that Diggle is a threat. But you can’t bring yourself to run away from him.


End file.
